Shropshire Star

Shropshire roads unlikely to benefit from new government bypass fund

Shropshire is unlikely to benefit from a bypass fund that has been launched by the government.

Published
Owen Paterson MP

But North Shropshire MP, Owen Paterson, says he is still optimistic that the county’s A5 and Oswestry bypass will benefit from the next round of money for Britain’s strategic road network.

The MP raised the problems of the A5 with transport minister John Hayes in Westminster this week.

Mr Hayes visited the county last year to see and hear for himself the problems of those who use and live near the A5 north of Shrewsbury.

Mr Paterson said: “I spoke to John Hayes on Tuesday and he said the route was still very much in the running in the strategic roads review.” The government has revealed that it is to spend £1 million of ring-fenced funding from vehicle excise duty on bypasses to combat congestion in towns and cities.

However that money will go on A-routes not trunk roads like the A5 and the Oswestry bypass, which carries both the A5 and the A483.

Mr Paterson said: “Oswestry has a bypass, but it is a bypass that is not working. It is woefully inadequate. If it had been built as a dual carriageway from the very beginning we would not have the problems that we have now. I do not think the bypass fund can help the A5 but the road is still very much in the strategic roads review.”

Vehicle excise duty - woth £5.8 billion a year - will be ringfenced to pay for new roads from 2020-21. It is the first time the money has been linked to highway upkeep since 1937.

Both the A5 and A483 have been identified in Highways England’s Midlands to Wales and Gloucestershire route strategy as a study area for further assessmentby the government. The department will decide which schemes will be taken forward in 2019.

Mr Hayes says the Government is litening to the concerns of people who use the roads or live nearby, after a highways report found that congestion on the A5 north of Shrewsbury and around Oswestry is worsening., impacting safety, economic growth and the environment.

Mr Paterson has been campaigning for the A5 to become a dual carriageway north of Shrewsbury to the Welsh border for 20 years.

It is hoped that newly forged links between Highways England and the Welsh Office will help speed up improvements.